It’s nice to see a Canadian cartridge of excellent quality getting some play on mainstream turntables and receiving good notices in the press.

The MC-2 Moving Coil Cartridge is the brainchild of Bernard Li, proprietor of Toronto’s Charisma Audio, one of Canada’s finest high-end audio distributors.

I first met Li when he opened his business and hosted a mixer – classy digs, great line of equipment and a lovely man. Charisma represents lines such as Scheu Analog, Calyx, Well Tempered Turntables, Madison Audio Lab, GigaWatt, Capriccio Continuo Loudspeakers, Shanling, Audio Exklusiv and others. A varied list of catholic taste.

Li has taken his meticulous business practices and transferred them into the production of a meticulous cartridge.

I call the moving coil MC-2 a delightful blue aluminum nugget. Rarely have I seen a cartridge that wowed me in the looks department, before one groove was needled.

I've known Mojo Audio's owner/designer Benjamin Zwickel for some years now. He's a restless sort of chap, like many brilliant designers I've met. Always tinkering and figuring ways to make his products better. He's also, at least where his magical boxes are concerned, meticulous to a fault.

Zwickel broke into the high-end scene producing cables. Very fine, they were. And very reasonably priced. He later began modifying Mac minis, creating excellent storage devices.

Jump a few years, and Zwickel's up to his pits in bits. Servers and DACs. I reviewed his latest server; it was excellent but had some of the eccentricities of the designer.

He uses the very finest parts and partners with companies that produce what he needs to exacting specifications.